Slow and Easy Crockpot Cooking

You DO Have Time for Home Cooked Meals

How often do you find yourself starving when you get home at night? And how often, as a result, do you grab anything and everything in sight? Why does it seem like we can stay true to our diets so well during the day only to derail when we get home?

A delicious and healthy ready-to-eat meal awaiting your arrival can help you stay on track (and NOT eat that box of crackers for dinner).

Cooking in the Crockpot (or the slow cooker) can be easy, fun and healthy. These handy kitchen appliances allow you to prepare food ahead of time and cook it without any attention. Instead of worrying all day about what to make for dinner, you know a hot meal will be ready when you get home. It's also perfect for batch cooking a healthy meal that will last 4-5 days.

A Crockpot can be a great help in preparing wholesome, nutritious meals that are veggie-rich, packed with complex carbs, and low in fat and calories. Long cooking on low heat tenderizes meat, so it is an excellent way to cook those cuts of meat that have less fat, are less tender, but are also less expensive.

Adapting Recipes

Brown and drain the fat from high-fat meats (like ground beef), before adding it to the Crockpot. Leaner meats such as stew beef, poultry, or pork chops do not have to be cooked beforehand.

Whole herbs and spices work better than crushed. If using crushed herbs, do not add them until closer to the end of the cooking time.

Always fill the Crockpot at least half full.

Reduce the liquid in your recipe to about one cup or less. The slow cooking method saves all the food's natural juices and the juices do not cook off.

Use canned soups, broths, wine, vegetable juice or water as the liquid in your Crockpot.

Add dairy products only during the final 30 minutes of cooking.

Vegetables take longer to cook than most meat, so put them on the bottom.

Cooking Time

Dried beans should be cooked and softened before you add them to the recipe. Cover the beans with 3 times their volume in unsalted water and bring to a boil on the stovetop. Boil 10 minutes, reduce heat, cover and allow to simmer 1-1/3 hours or until the beans are tender. Discard the water after boiling. The beans can now be added to the Crockpot recipe.

Cook pasta, rice and noodles until just tender. Add to the Crockpot toward the end of cooking.

This article was very helpful. I love to use mine. My newest one has three in one, each with its own control settings. I can start at different times and combine at the end. Works great for the two of us.

good tips... I have used crock pot a lot. I recently replaced mine with a smaller one. The outside of it is hot to the touch. My other one was not like that.. is it safe?? I threw away the box so do not think I can return it. Does anyone else have this happen. I do mean VERY hot.

Why not use canned, drained and rinsed beans? Isn't the point of a slow-cooker reduction in effort and ease in preparation? Using canned beans also reduces power usage. Why turn on 220V when you're already going to use 110V?

In 34 years married my husband and I have loved crockpots. Made Sunday dinner in 2 cps just to cut down on heat in the house -- which is a big summer motivator! Our microwave died recently and I now use a very small cp to reheat frozen bread, biscuits, muffins, etc - just wrap in a little foil and set the cp on low. We also use Chef Meg's ideas on how to cook brown rice. Works well for potluck style dinners, too. Thanks for an encouraging article and all comments!

I really enjoy the slow cooker, saves on dishes and the house smells wonderful when you return in the evening, dinner is done. I also give a crock pot for wedding presents. The newlyweds look at it strange at first, then once the children come along. They appreciate the time saver.

I find new uses for my crockpot all the time. Now that I have a pressure cooker/crockpot combo it is even more versatile. Broth from the bones and veg in the pressure cooker in large quantities quickly for the freezer. Then make soups and stews with it in the slow cooker. It has a stainless steel insert for cooking so browning and cooking all in one. I don't loose all of the good brown sticky bits. They get incorporated into the recipe when I add the liquid and stir it up.

About The Author

Becky Hand
Becky is a registered and licensed dietitian with almost 20 years of experience. A certified health coach through the Cooper Institute with a master's degree in health education, she makes nutrition principles practical, easy-to-apply and fun. See all of Becky's articles.

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